The Searchers
by SonomaCurtis
Summary: A man returns home to find his brother's family destroyed by an Indian raid and his nieces stolen. He swears vengeance and begins a chase for his nieces, desperate to find them both alive. This is based off the famous John Wayne Movie.


**All right, I realize that there is no actual forum for John Wayne fanfics, but I figured, what the heck, I love the guy, so why not. Anyway, this story is from one of his most famous movies, The Searchers. In the movie, John Wayne stars as an ex-Confederate soldier who returns to his only family, his brother's. Shortly after he returns, there is a Comanche raid on the house. The Comanche run off with Wayne's two nieces and leave the other members of the family, a young boy, his sister-in-law, and his brother, burning in the remnants of the house. This begins Wayne's quest for the safe return of his nieces and revenge. Along with him goes a young quarter Cherokee. Now, My character that I am adding is a half-breed called Returning War or Leah. She is half Apache and half white, making her an automatic dislike of the Duke's (as he is very racist against what he calls Injuns). She is at first at odds with the hero, but eventually...well, let's just see what happens.**

**I am starting a few years before the movie actually opens. Just so you know.**

The teenaged girl stared up at the much larger man in front of her. He ripped her dark brown hair out of its braid and jerked her toward him. As a young girl, Returning War had heard of barbaric travelers who would buy women and mistreat them. She never dreamed that it would happen to her, but she hadn't a choice. If she hadn't gone, her father would have sold her younger sisters. All for whiskey. Was that all she was worth? Fifty kegs of whiskey?

The man's rank breath drew her out of her memories and she closed her big blue eyes in an effort to try and make the horrible man go away. And suddenly he was gone. Returning War opened her eyes and saw a man paying out fifty-dollar pieces to the Horrible Man. Confusion filled her mind when the Horrible Man went away, leaving her and the new man alone. He had a kind face and big hands, the first thing that Returning War noticed about him. The first thing she took notice of on any man, as they had a tendency to use those hands when anger drew their eyes closed to logic. But he didn't raise his hand against her; he held it out to her to help her up.

Only then did she realize that when the Horrible Man had let go of her, she had fallen. She took the Kind Man's hand and pulled herself up. When she was up, she brushed all the desert dust off her dress and arms and face. She then faced the Kind Man and looked him in the eye.

"You saved me." She said slowly. Her blue eyes betrayed only her distrust and confusion. "Why you save me?" She asked, her English broken up by fear. The Kind Man smiled.

"Actually, I'm not the one with the idea, it was my-!" He broke off as a younger man approached and elbowed him in the chest. While the Kind Man was regaining his composure, Elbow Man spoke.

"He had already paid money for you yesterday so you come back to his house and serve as a maid. But that oaf that got you today stole you before my brother could get you." He explained and the Kind Man looked at Elbow Man with anger. He was still rubbing his chest and shook his head before nodding at Returning War.

"Yeah, what he said." He agreed. Returning War smiled. She didn't really care why he had saved her, but she owed Kind Man her life, and so she decided she would love to be his maid. "Uh, what's your name?" Kind Man asked.

"Returning War. I think that is English translation. But now that I am beginning new life, I need new name. So you will name me, as my new guardian." She explained. Kind Man looked taken aback and he pulled his brother aside. After a few moments they returned and Kind Man smiled.

"Your new name is Leah." He said. Returning War/Leah smiled and nodded her thanks. Elbow Man nudged his brother again and Kind Man motioned for Leah to follow them to a big tent. Inside was a desk behind which sat four men. In front of each man was a line. The men at the table were taking down names and excusing the men they recorded. Elbow Man got into one of the lines.

"What is he doing?" Leah asked.

"He's enlisting."

"For war?" Leah asked. Kind Man nodded and looked on silently. Leah took that as her indication to do the same. The two watched as Elbow Man walked up, said his name, and left. She heard his name before he was gone. Ethan Edwards. When he said his next-of-kin the name was that of his brother, Aaron Edwards.

**Okay, so that's it for now, I'll quickly get to working on the next chapter and I hope that you have enjoyed this. Please comment or review or criticize or whatever the heck you wanna do, I just really want this story to be a success. So, Until next time...SEE YA!**


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